bennett



Feb. 28, 1956 s. H. BENNETT CONVERTIBLE TOY Filed May 28, 1954 FIG. 2

YOUR PONY HAS THROWN A SHOE RETURN TO RANCH FIG. 7

INVENTOR. SAMUEL H .BENNETT BY Wt ATTORNEY United States Patent CONVERTIBLE TOY Samuel H. Bennett, Louisville, Ky.

Application May 28, 1954, Serial No. 433,037

2 Claims. (Cl. 46-116) The present invention relates to a convertible game having an appeal to children, and relates in particular to a game which, when not in use may be formed into the general shape of an animal.

It is an object of this invention to provide a game board which, when not in use is folded about a support in simulation of an animal to provide a storage compartment therein for the playing pieces.

Another object is the provision of game board which, when folded about a support forms a simulation of an animal suggestive of the game.

A further object is the provision of a game board folded in simulation of an animal, and which, when opened provides a support for parts of the game.

The invention will be described in greater detail in the following specification taken in connection with the accompanying drawing illustrating an embodiment of the invention by way of example, and wherein:

Figure l is a side elevation of the invention with a part broken away;

Figure 2 is a plan view of Figure l with part broken away;

Figure 3 is a section taken on line III-III of Figure Figure 4 is a plan view with the game board removed and the posterior board in horizontal position;

Figure 5 is a plan view of the game board;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of a playing piece; and

Figure 7 shows an accessory card used in the game.

Referring to the drawing the assembled structure 'is made in simulation of an animal, such as a pony, and comprises a base or belly board 1 to which are attached the four legs indicated collectively at 2. These legs may be attached, for example, by placing them into holes in the belly board. An anterior breast board 3 is suitably attached to the belly board, and from the breast board extends a neck piece 4 having a head 5 thereon. At the opposite or posterior end, a rump board 6 is preferably hinged along its lower edge to the bottom edge of the belly board by a hinge 7 and the tail piece 8 extending from the rump is of such length that when the rump board is extended, as shown in dot and dash lines in Figure 1, the tail piece acts as a leg or pedestal to support the rump board horizontally. In raised position, as shown in Figure 1, the inner face of the rump board abuts the posterior edge of the belly board and a hook 9 swivelled on a screw eye in the top surface of the belly board engages a screw eye 11 in the rump board to hold the rump board in raised position.

The back and flanks of the animal are made of a board indicated generally at 12, and made up of the sections 12a, 12b and 12c covered with a pliable cover 13 such as cardboard. The sections 12a and 120 are hinged by the cardboard 13 along their longitudinal edges respectively to the longitudinal edges of section 12b. The sections 12a, 12b and 12c correspond in width to the height, width and height respectively of the breast and rump boards, so that they may be folded over the latter as shown in Figure 1 to form the assembled figure and provide a compartment 14. The board 12 may be held assembled to the belly board by a rod 15 hooked at one end which passes through screw eyes 16, 17 and 18 located respectively in the edge of board'12c, the underside of belly board 1, and the edge of board 120, and this rod may be held in place by a pin 19, or in any other desired manner. The outside of the board 12 is decorated as desired, the preferred decoration being randomly arranged circular spots.

The cardboard 13 on the obverse side of the board 12 is printed to indicate a gameboard. The markings may represent any desired type of gameboard, the preferred type being a racing game played with play pieces shown at 21 (Fig. 6) preferably in the shape of horses heads. The game comprises a track 22 marked off in spaces, and the movement of the play pieces 21 by the players around the track are determined by a chance play controlling device. As shown, the rump board on its inside carries a rotatable pointer 23 and the board is marked off in segments with numbers in the segments to form a chance play controlling device. The pointer is spun manually and the number on which it stops indicates the number of spaces the player moves.

Cards also may be employed in connection with the game. These cards may be placed on the outline 24 on the board, face down. When a players piece stops on a colored square indicated by lining, the player draws the top card from the stack, and moves his piece as directed by the card. Other colored squares may be provided (as shown by the inscribed circles) and when a playing piece stops on such other squares the player may receive a free turn. The rules also may provide for bumping a piece by ending the play on the same space, so that the first occupant of the space returns to starting position. The rules, of course, may be modified as desired.

A sample card 25 is shown in Figure 7, and the following examples illustrate the content of the cards:

A. Your pony is lagging just a bit, go forward one space.

B. Your pony is behaving well, advance to the next blue space.

C. Your pony wants to gallop, go ahead three spaces.

D. Your pony has stopped to eat grass, stay where you are until your next turn.

B. Your pony has run away, go ahead five spaces.

F. Your pony has bolted and thrown you, go back four spaces.

G. Your pony refuses to cross the creek, stay where your are until your next turn.

H. Your pony has throw a shoe, return to the ranch and start all over again.

I. Your pony is tired and wants to rest, drop back five spaces.

These cards may be placed in a box 26 which is placed in the compartment 14 for storage. The playing pieces also may be placed in a box 27 to be stored in the compartment.

It will be understood that the pointer 23 may be mounted on the anterior end board in which event this end board preferably is hinged to the baseboard for swinging movement from its normal vertical animal simulating position to a horizontal position wherein it may be supported by the head and neck extremity of this toy. Furthermore, the pointer may be mounted on either the gameboard or the baseboard in which event neither end board need be hinged.

I claim as my invention:

1. A convertible toy simulating an animal comprising: abaseorbell'y board; leg means to support said belly board; an anterior end board secured at one end of said belly board; a posterior end board hinged to the opposite end of said belly board; said end boards in upright position with the belly board simulating the breast, rump, belly and legs of an animal; means to support the posterior board in horizontal position; a detachably mounted board having sections simulating the back and sides of said animal, said sections being connected together for manual manipulation from an animal simulating form of inverted U-shape to a relatively fiat form; and means to removably secure said detachable board to said base board with the detachable board in its animal simulating form and with its sections positioned to extend from one end board to the other.

2. A convertible toy as specified in claim 1 wherein:

said means includes a tail rod extending from the posterior end board, said tail rod acting as a pedestal to support said posterior board in horizontal position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 158,258 Geromanos Apr. 25, 1950 1,336,954 Gillies Apr. 13, 1920 1,449,393 French Mar. 27, 1923 1,523,242 Bain Jan. 13, 1925 2,084,308 Behr June 22, 1937 2,169,682 Duncan Aug. 15, 1939 2,221,267 Robertson Nov. 12, 1940 

